Colorado’s Dizzying Delights

Thin air may mess with your head and lungs for a bit, but after that fist titanic tee shot, you’ll be wishing all golf courses were perched Rocky Mountain high.

On the two-hour drive from the Mile High city’s airport (Denver International), into the beating heart of the Colorado Rockies, every member of my foursome’s ears pop. Ensuing altitude headaches necessitate pulling into a Stop & Save in Winter Park to pick up a bottle of Tylenol and packages of elk jerky — a carnivore’s impulse purchase at the register. Not sure if it was the dizzying heights but the acetaminophen took an extra 15 minutes to kick in. Once it did, my crew and I could finally take in the mind-numbingly gorgeous alpine vistas and frosty peaks that loom ever present over this rugged mountain landscape. The scenery is immediately familiar to anyone who’s ever knocked back a can of Coors Light.

It’s another 30 minutes to Grand Lake, population 447 and conveniently perched right next to the western entrance of Rocky Mountain National Park. Bicycles and spandex getups outnumber golf bags and polo shirts at the breakfast tables at the Gateway Inn, a rustic mountain lodge with a giant black bear teddy bear in the lobby, a log furniture motif, and a bar where s’mores supplies are divvied out to guests in the evenings.

There are 97 kilometres of hard surface road in the park and big lunged mountain bikers with a propensity for calf burning climbs relish the 8,000- to 12,183-foot elevation change. It’s an idyllic location for a pins-plus-spoke-spins vacay, but with only two full days ahead and four golf courses worth hitting in the region, the biking will have to wait until next time.

Our first stop is Grand Elk, designed by Craig ‘The Walrus’ Stadler and Tripp Davis. It’s a gentle rolling heathland style course patterned after the inland tracks of the British Isles. Gorse and sage frame fairways and there are gobs of forced carries. If you recall watching the Ryder Cup at Gleneagles in 2014, you may feel a tingle of déjà vu as the topography is remarkably similar — but with snowcapped hills in the background. If you’re looking for clues on how to play this strategic test, look no further then the cheeky names on the hole markers. “Surprise,” “Faith,” “Let it Ride” and “Wee Bit” certainly dispense lighthearted, yet very legit local knowledge. While the course’s namesake mammal was nowhere to be found during our round we did hear what sounded like appreciative neighing. A ranch abuts a couple of holes on the back nine and some horses seemed to get a kick out of one of my approach shots. Either that or they were simply jockeying for me to toss them my granola bar.

That afternoon, just as we arrived at Grand Lake, the oldest golf course in the area, it began to rain cats and dogs. It was looking gloomier than Ernie Els’ face after his sextuple bogey on the first hole of the Masters last year. With cracking thunder and biblical lightening bolts flashing in the sky, our prospects of getting out there appeared quite dim. But a half-hour of kibitzing in the clubhouse later and with dire weather warnings remaining on our weather apps, the storm lifted long enough for us to get in nine holes. With the course to ourselves, and playing in a one, two, skip-a-few manner, we managed to glean an appreciation for this rustic course ensconced by towering lodgepole pines. A recent pine beetle infestation has depleted some of the woodland charm but the course’s small target greens, many of which can be run up onto, was still a lot of fun to play, and while you’re technically just on the outskirts, it really feels like you’re in the National Park itself.

Grand Lake is a rustic course framed by lodgepole pines.

Next up was Granby Ranch, a tale of two vastly different nines. The front is mostly flt, routed through a meadow and plays along the Fraser River beside an Amtrak train route. The back nine, on the other hand, is hella hilly with plenty of hiking to be had as you clamber up and over a ridge. The grounds sprawl over 5,000 acres with miles of hiking and Nordic trails to explore as well as a tributary of the Colorado River teeming with cutthroat trout. Guided flyfishing outings can be set up for those looking to scratch an angling itch between rounds.

Granby Ranch sprawls over 5,000 acres of wonderful terrain.

Pole Creek is uniformly the top of the totem pole course in the area. Golf Digest named it the best new course in America when it opened up in 1985 and through the years the honours keep rolling in, including best mountain course nods by the Denver Post and Rocky Mountain News.

Pole Creek is the can’t miss course when in this neck of the woods.

Pole Creek extends over 27 holes but the must play is the Ridge Nine where the elevation tops out at 8,800 feet above sea level. If you’re looking for a venue for a longest drive competition, the hole to do it is the Ridge’s downhill 556-yard par-5 seventh with the continental divide as a backdrop. Overlooking a valley with a 150-foot vertical drop from tee box to green, the altitude effect, coupled with opportune backwind, gifted all-time tape measure highs to a couple of fellas in my group. If you’ve got decent length off the tee then reaching the green in two here, and eyeing an eagle putt, is a very doable, and very thrilling, prospect. Good luck.

Lucky No. 7 on the Meadow nine is also notable. It’s a horseshoe-shaped dogleg par 5, and the optimal shot is to hit over the trees so you land right in front of the lake leaving a 200-yard shot over the pond and back up the hill to the green. Stepping up the design ante on the sevens seems to be a trend here, as the Ranch nine’s seventh is a long par 3 with a creek going two thirds of the way around from the back to the front of the green.

“Sometimes we call it the TPC of Pole Creek, because the creek blows the bank, typically in the last three weeks of June, and it becomes an island green,” explained the club’s head pro Jim Thompson.

As it’s getting late near the end of our round at Pole Creek the cart girl pulls up for last call. While my group’s good, beer wise, a buddy of mine asks if she’s got any blunts on her — this is, after all, the first state in the U.S. to legalize recreational marijuana use. You can tell its not the fist time golfers have gone there. After shrugging her shoulders, she tells us there’s a pretty large grow op/dispensary in Tabernash just a few minutes down the highway (U.S. 40 West). The 12,500-square-foot Igadi facility feels like a ritzy garden centre and there’s an educational observation room with touchscreen monitors explaining the science behind the various growth stages. You can also take a peek into its kitchen to watch cannabis chefs preparing edibles. It’s worth checking out for those folks who want to get, you know, even more high during this gorgeous golf adventure at altitude.

SLIPPERY SLOPE

On the six-minute ascent to the starting line of Winter Park Resort’s alpine thrill ride I have a few am-I-really-doing-this gut checks. It’s the state’s longest alpine slide, normally an inconsequential plaudit, but this is Colorado, America’s prime ski country, where prized peaks drew tourists long before recreational pot.I’ve braved concrete chutes before but they were puny, bunny slope affairs incapable of fulfilling even milquetoast needs for speed and quite the contrast to this 3,000-foot beast with a 600-foot vertical drop. For uninitiated ski resort sliders, picture a bobsled track but instead of careening over ice you’re rolling a wheeled sled over smooth concrete.The chairlift to the summit provides an aerial preview of the immediate challenge ahead. Sliders either seem to brave the serpentine track at a breakneck pace or are scared-slow and prone to yanking the brake at every twist. With a hand brake situated between riders’ legs, modulating velocity is a breeze.

My heart races a little bit as I grab my sled off the conveyor belt. Then it’s just a quick test of the brakes to satisfy the starter and suddenly I’m hurtling down the track while gripping the brake for dear life. As someone who has always had trouble gauging turn apexes in Formula One racing video games, for the fist few chicanes I’m overly cautious and brake often but once I get a hang of the banks and realize that I’m not going to slip off the track or flip over I start to really enjoy the twisting thrill ride to the max.

Near the finish I catch up to the rider ahead of me and am forced to brake for the final drop, but by then I’ve already had my racing jollies satisfied. Winter Park’s other summer diversions include bungee trampolines, a zip-line, climbing wall, and a mental-mettle testing human maze that took me a lot longer to escape than I care to admit.